They should also check with their school to see what the grade forgiveness policy is. Some schools will completely overwrite Ds and Fs on transcripts if the student retakes the class and passes, in which case take the D/F now and retake later.
This option only makes sense if the school agrees to completely remove any record of the bad grade from the transcript, not if they just average the two or don’t put the bad grade in GPA while still showing it on the transcript.
There’s no bad grade at issue (yet) and no requirement to retake. It’s an elective only, albeit in the student’s major. And the only thing that will show up on the transcript is a simple “W”.
W does not matter. It could mean anything–bad TA, terrible professor, breakup. Anything. No big deal. A bad grade on the other hand…
What percentage of assigned work in that course has your child already completed for a grade?
Is it possible to take an incomplete and finish off the remaining work in the course a month after the semester ends?
Just wondering as plenty of college classmates took some incompletes and successfully completed the work within a few weeks/month after the semester of the course in question.
If this is the first W and you will remain full time ( if you need that for housing /financial aid) I would not worry about it. Sometimes you need to withdraw from a class to make sure you are focusing on the other classes.
Do think about:
Why do I need to withdraw?
A)Medical? Mental Health? Other activities (sports, etc)? Work?
Then you need to take care of these things before next semester
B) The class is too difficult?
Are you prepared for the class? Are you giving it full effort? Is this the major for you?
C)Overloaded on credits
Do you need to make up these credits or were you just trying to get ahead?
How will I make up the credits for that class to remain on target for graduation?
Do you have AP credits? Can you take a summer course?
Will you stay on target within your major w/r/t pre-reqs? If you don’t take Chem1 then you can’t take Chem 2 which will delay etc etc
Is this a pattern? Have you withdrawn before?